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"The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration. . .Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against the stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion. "
- Anna Comnena (1083-1153), The Alexiad
"I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
- Francis Bacon, 1592
Thursday, December 30, 2004
West Point Grad Earns Bronze Star
My cousin sent me the link to this story about a West Point Grad from her class, Capt. Kellie McCoy, and the fighting in Fallujah this past September. Check it out.
Just goes to show that some of the girls can lead in battle as well as the guys. Something to think about for those of us, like myself, who don't believe in having women in combat.
A bit late with a quote from this, but it's actually better to have waited a bit and seen if it would hold up. Sadly, it really does:
In my time, I've known dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and other members of Britain's House of Lords and none of them had the contempt for the masses one routinely hears from America's coastal elites.
Dismissiveness towards the views of a majority of voters is no way to win elections. That's the practical side of what's so wrong with the undertone one sees all too often, and the idea that they don't need to change anything to win.
I've said before: I have my own views, and prefer people who more closely hold them win elections. But I like it when we have two healthy parties competing for votes. It makes it better all around. The converse tends to bring out the worst in all parties, which only exacerbates the problem. This part is also good:
More to the point, nobody who campaigns with Ben Affleck at his side has the right to call anybody an idiot. H. L. Mencken said that no one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Well, George Soros, Barbra Streisand and a lot of their friends just did: The Kerry campaign and its supporters -- MoveOn.org, Rock The Vote, etc. -- were awash in bazillions of dollars, and what have they got to show for it? In this election, the plebs were more mature than the elites: They understood that war is never cost-free and that you don't run away because of a couple of setbacks; they did not accept that one jailhouse scandal should determine America's national security interest; they rejected the childish caricature of their president and paranoid ravings about Halliburton; they declined to have their vote rocked by Bruce Springsteen or any other pop culture poser.
Which, yes, drips with contempt of its own. No side is immune from it, but some display it more than others. Right now, it's the Democratic side that people see as the worst offenders in this. And those people who spent bazillions misunderestimating the electorate will continue to do so until they learn to respect those who don't share their opinions. That doesn't mean they need to transform their own views to match those they don't share. But how you go about trying to persuade, trying to reach people, changes a lot based on whether you respect the views you don't share, or sneer and call them stupid and dismiss them out of hand, rather than taking them as something that needs to be dealt with on the merits, seriously and substantively.
I would argue that there's also something to this:
At some point in both the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, your typical media liberal would feign evenhandedness and bemoan the way the choice has come down to "two weak candidates.''
But, in that case, how come the right's weak candidates are the ones that win? Because a weak candidate pushing strong ideas is better than a weak candidate who's had no ideas since Roe vs. Wade.
But one-problem-per-post is probably a good limit. Fixing the problem of tone and attitude towards those who don't agree with them is the first thing that needs to be adressed. After that, then they might open their mind to new ideas to appeal to those people, and kill two birds with one stone, rather than simply assuming they have all the answers and the only problem is people who are too stupid or deluded by Karl Rove's (before it was Lee Atwater. Before then, Roger Ailes, before then. . .) Jedi Mind Tricks.
If I wasn't sure what to say about the death of Reggie White, still more I'm not sure what to say about the catastrophic death toll in the Indian Ocean. One can get news here and a better round-up than I could provide here.
Many, many more people have died in this than did on 9/11. Comparisons are almost inevitable. It is possible that 8-10 times as many people died as a result of this natural catastrophe as died on Sept 11th.
For the people who lost loved ones on either date, people they cared about, there is little distinction. Every life is precious, and we mourn them all. To look at the sorrow and loss of people as a result of this tragedy is to see something no different than the sorrow and loss of people whose loved ones died on 9/11. In that, there is no distinction, no real difference.
Likewise, when it comes to rallying to send aid and comfort to those affected, our response should be no different. If you were moved to give blood then, you should be so moved now. If you were moved to send what you could to help, contribute to the relief efforts then, you should do so now. It is needed all the more because there are so many more people who have been affected, and in nations that are not as able to bear the cost themselves as we are. In that, there is no difference.
I have thought long and hard, but I must add, if only because others will want to obscure, that there is a distinction on one level. Many of us rankled when 9/11 was called a "tragedy", and described as one would describe a force of nature. This event is such an occasion - no human hand could have prevented the earthquake that launched this Tsunami, that killed so many people.
But human actions launched 9/11. Humans conducted the attack, and those people are responsible for the deaths that resulted. That is a distinction with a difference, in the same way that actions that deliberately target civilian non-combatants are different from actions that try to avoid, to the extent humanly possible and at great expense, harming the innocent (the cost of developing guided munitions, for example - not to mention the expense in the lives of our own soldiers because of rules-of-engagement that call on us to take such care to some risk of our own people).
So if people pointedly ask why the reaction - emotional, moral, and otherwise - to the Tsunami is different from how we reacted in the wake of 9/11, well there is a reason. 9/11 was not a natural event.
For those who died, and those who loved them, the loss is no less real, however. We must all remember that, and mourning should be no different. It is impossible to see the images from Asia and not feel for the people there. Those who died had a future ahead of them, a promising future, and they are no longer able to live it.
It is unfortunate that many people, especially those into politics, Reggie White will largely be remembered as a former football player who said some controvercial things.
But he was more than that. He was also more than a great defensive player who came to Green Bay and helped revive the team, leading to a Super Bowl victory in '94, a victory in which he played a key role.
Packer fans, and football fans, came to see more of Reggie White, the "Minister of Defense", a devout Christian. But we didn't know him, either, not completely. Towards the end of his life, Reggie White was still searching, spiritually, trying to find answers in faith, searching and trying to overcome some of what he said, thought, and believed. As we all hope to do, trying to learn and become better.
Reggie White has died at the age of 43. I'll note here that I read somewhere that the average life expectancy of former NFL players, anyone who's played as much as a down in the league, is something like 54.
It would be easy to say something trite here, like "Reggie White is now the Minister of Gawd's defense in heaven", but that stuff always seems so - I donno, has a false ring to me. Truth is, I never know how to write these things, be it the death of a football player, statesman, or anyone really. All I can say is may the Lord keep his soul and comfort his family and friends.
